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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26493349">Of Questers, Quarried</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncendiarySnuffbox/pseuds/IncendiarySnuffbox'>IncendiarySnuffbox</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hiveswap</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:55:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,465</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26493349</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncendiarySnuffbox/pseuds/IncendiarySnuffbox</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Joey and Xefros stay the day at a delightful young gentleman’s home. Nothing goes wrong.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Of Questers, Quarried</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The rain on Alternia, like a lot of things on Alternia, was both similar and different to back on Earth, Joey thought. For one thing, it made mud, which was usually a bad idea to tap-dance on. But for another, it was more than capable of burning human skin off. On the journey to meet Xefros’ fellow rebellion member, down country roads devoured by weeds and across untamed grasslands, it was therefore important to stay ahead of storm clouds. Unfortunately, looking behind her, Joey could see a mountain of grey and black blocking out the stars, approaching fast on some wind higher up in the sky. She resumed looking forwards worriedly, guiding Cornibuster across the grass that, at about two hundred feet off to her left, fell away on the edge of a giant sea cliff. The roaring of the sea almost drowned out Cornibuster’s rhythmically pounding feet.</p><p>“Xefros,” Joey started, raising her voice over the various sounds, “I don’t think we can keep ahead of that storm!” Absently, she ran her thumb over the bumpy callus on her pointer finger, where she’d learned the hard way what Alternian rain could do. Behind her, Xefros replied in his buzzy voice,<br/>
“Yeah, it looks pretty bad! A storm like that would give me a rash and would probably, you know, kill you.”<br/>
“Uh huh.” Joey breathed out through her nose, “Is there anywhere around where we could find shelter?”<br/>
“We’re approaching… Slaughter City, I think. Maybe Murder City?” Joey’s eyes went wide at that.<br/>
“Sounds like a happening place, either way.” She said sarcastically, “But could we make it?”<br/>
“Well,” Xefros was interrupted by a roll of thunder from behind, “…no. But, there’s probably people around! We should head towards there. It’s further down this way that, um, we’re already going.” She nodded and urged Cornibuster forwards.</p><p>It’d been three days (nights, actually, Joey supposed) since she and Xefros left Outglut behind. They hadn’t sighted the Heiress’ battleship since, but Alternia was full of other problems. Namely, the sun. Joey didn’t understand Xefros’ paranoia about it until he, she and Cornibuster had to take shelter in a hole before the sun came up, with dawn’s fiery orange rays being blinding even from the back of the cave. They took the time spent cowering from the heat to plan out their route and discuss their long-term plans. However, Xefros didn’t really know much about Tetrarch Dammek’s female comrade, so he would mostly just reiterate how important she was and how important it was that they find her and not die on the way.</p><p>After another half hour of riding, the light of the three moons had been blocked out by the cloud cover, which stretched to all corners of the sky. The thunder boomed above Joey’s and Xefros’ heads and caused Cornibuster’s ears to prick up constantly. Through eyes stung by the wind, Joey and Xefros were able to make out a comforting sight. City lights glowed on the horizon ahead, and the hairline black strip of a road could be made out leading away from the city by the pinpricks of streetlights. However, the hope inside Joey was quickly turned into dread by a particularly loud peal of thunder, causing her and Xefros to wince.</p><p>“Xefros, I don’t think we’re going to make it.” Joey said, her eyes jumping across the shadowed grasslands.<br/>
“But there’s nowhere else we can hide. We have to keep going!” Though, as Xefros said this, Joey made out a shape in the near distance. The light from Slaughter (or Murder) City was dim upon it but rising from the sea on her left was a huge, rough pillar of dark stone. On top of it, seeming like an imposition of order on the chaos of the landform, was a smooth structure that reached above the level of the cliff.<br/>
“What about that?” Joey asked, while pointing. Xefros followed her finger to the black building and grimaced slightly.<br/>
“Is that a hive?” He murmured. Joey was about to reply when lightning unexpectedly raced across the sky ahead. To Joey, it looked a lot like the buildings she’d glimpsed when she and Xefros left Outglut behind. Sharp, domineering, and chaotic in its own way, with crazy towers tangled up at the base in a mess of a foundation. To Xefros, it looked like nothing but bad news.</p><p>“Joey, that’s not a good idea.” Joey frowned, but didn’t turn to face him when she replied, not wanting to let Cornibuster run into a boulder or something.<br/>
“Why not? It’s gotta be our best chance!”<br/>
“Trust me, Joey, there’s no way anyone inside a hive that big is friendly!”<br/>
“What do you mean?” Joey was getting frustrated now. She’d take anything over not melting! Xefros stuttered a bit before continuing hastily.<br/>
“Look, purplebloods especially love setting up on the coastline. I’m a gutt- erm, I mean, rustblood, and you’re an alien! A purple will kill us and write bad puns with our blood!” He knew how much Joey hated it when he called himself “gutterblood”. Joey wanted to retort, but then she felt something on her shoulder. The splash of a single raindrop. So close to her ear, she could hear the fabric of her jacket start to sizzle.<br/>
“We have to.” She said quietly. Xefros ran a hand messily through his hair, but his panic subsided and gave way to resignation. Joey steered Cornibuster hastily towards the structure.</p><p>More drops fell from the sky as they closed the distance to the sea, so in response Joey pulled her coat up over her head and reflected on how lucky she was that the first drop missed her head and didn’t give her a bald spot. Not being able to see very well, Joey was surprised when the splatting sounds of Cornibuster’s footfalls into mud gave way to delicate footfalls on wood. Peeking out, she saw that Cornibuster, of his own volition, had located a rope bridge that she hadn’t noticed in the dark. The series of purple planks, about thirty feet long, connected the stack and the mainland well enough, though the experience was still a little dizzying. Joey focused on the repetitive movements of Cornibuster’s muscles to avoid looking down. Xefros seemed to scoot a little closer to her on Cornibuster’s back. The step back onto solid ground couldn’t have come quick enough, and blessedly there was an overhang from the front of the hive that blocked out the downpour in the making. Xefros and Joey disembarked from Cornibuster, who sat down and started trying to clean himself. </p><p>“Sorry, buddy.” Joey muttered, looking at the filth all over Cornibuster’s paws and underside. She turned towards the hive’s front door. It was huge and wooden, and there were a set of neatly kept stairs leading up to it. Joey fought the urge to spring up to the door and rap it with her knuckles, and instead turned to Xefros, who was shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably. “Well, we’re here now. What do you think we should do?” He thinks.<br/>
“I should knock on the door. I’m burgundy, but you’re not a troll at all, so whoever lives here would probably be less irked by me addressing them than you.”<br/>
“That’s understandable.” Joey replied, mulling over once again the not-so-pleasant picture Xefros had painted of troll society. Joey once again asked herself how a kid raised by an animal was supposed to survive here. She was raised by both an animal and a grown-up, and she wasn’t exactly the picture of success back home. Still, whatever. Joey shook off the negativity to focus on the present. She turned to Xefros, who was staring very intently at the door.<br/>
“What if I,” Joey began encouragingly, “went up and knocked, and made it look like you did it?” Xefros looked at her, then at the door, then back, and gave a tentative nod. Joey hoped his concern was not entirely justified.</p><p>Joey climbed the stairs up to the huge door. There was a knocker shaped like… an axolotl’s head? Weird. Xefros followed behind her, not exactly cowering but doing something similar. Even Cornibuster seemed more on edge than usual, staring straight at the pair as Joey’s hand inched towards the knocker. Suddenly, she seized it, as if to get the whole thing over with, and banged against the door twice. She dropped the knocker and immediately locked eyes with Xefros. Xefros nodded and stood at the front while Joey went behind. Joey had the thought that it probably wasn’t a good idea to lie to their host right off the bat, but she pushed the thought aside. Xefros had told her about “psionics”, and she didn’t want whoever lived here to read her mind.</p><p>The doors suddenly reverberated with a thud and a click from its mechanisms. Its lock turned, and the two opened inwards, showing nothing but darkness. Joey and Xefros waited for a second. There was no one there. Joey’s posture deflated slightly.<br/>
“What? Aren’t they going to greet us?” She asked. She turned her head to face Xefros and found that he had graduated from nervous to petrified in a matter of seconds. “What do we do?” Xefros gulped again.<br/>
“Well, we have to go in, don’t we?” He said. Joey pondered for a second, biting her lip, before nodding affirmative.</p><p>Joey looked into the beckoning gap between the doors. There was a carpet, and the beginnings of a hallway. Coloured paint was smeared haphazardly across the walls and floor. Joey’s eyes fell upon something on the wall, and she jumped. She thought she’d seen a figure on the right! But, judging by the platform it was set up on, it was just a suit of armour. There was another standing rigidly just across from it, further in the shadow. Joey pushed the door open gently, but it still produced a creak loud enough to set her and Xefros on edge again. She took a step into the hall, and then another. Soon, Xefros was able to follow in behind her, eyes combing over the shadowed surfaces. Nothing jumped out to get them or greet them. They were both about to breathe out a bit of the tension inside themselves when the door slammed, and the mechanism unclicked and unthudded.</p><p>It was dark, very dark. Even for Xefros’ wide yellow eyes, the room was made up of smears in dark greys. Thankfully, after a heart-stopping instant, lights flashed on. Torches on the walls seemed to ignite themselves, probably through some electric device.<br/>
“Well,” Joey began unconfidently, “Xefros, could you try the door?” He did, and there was a series of jittering and jerking sounds before he sighed.<br/>
“Locked.” He said, despondently. Joey slumped over for a bit before turning to face him. He had moved on to examining the suit of armour. He saw her gaze and gave a half-hearted smile. “I thought it might have a key.”<br/>
“Okay,” said Joey, “I’ll check the other one, then.” She wanted to reassure Xefros, but he only furrowed his brow.<br/>
“What other one?” He asked.<br/>
“This one!” Joey responded, spinning around to point at the one on the left. However, there was nothing there. Not even a plinth. “What?”<br/>
“I never installed any armour at that area.” Said an unfamiliar voice in Joey’s ear.</p><p>Joey jumped six feet and fumbled for her flashlight. The figure was in the dark, facing her, the outline in the shadow conveying nothing but the outline of two curving horns, the one on the right topped with what looked like a plus. Two narrow eyes glowed inside of a lean face with a sharp chin. Joey acquired her flashlight and shone it on the figure.<br/>
“Now, know this!” The troll squinted and frowned. His face was covered in white paint, obscuring the grey skin. His eyes were framed by diamonds, his cheeks were adorned with red spirals, and his mouth was surrounded by a comically large fanged smile. He was wearing a doctor’s jacket and red-and-green striped pyjama pants. “There’s no need for anything as anti-amenable as that action.”</p><p>Joey stared at the boy, slightly lowering her flashlight and allowing him to step into the light.<br/>
“What?” She asked, confused. The boy’s frown disappeared, and a cool smile slid across his features. Unlike Xefros, his teeth were very unlike a human’s. They were all fangs.<br/>
“I mean, you may sheath your stick for shining on spaces.” He spoke in a strange, stuttering syntax, which gave Joey the idea that his brain was using a typewriter to tell his mouth what to say. Joey thought for a second before realising that he wanted her to put her flashlight away. Instead, she let it hang at her side.<br/>
“Why do you talk like that–?” Joey almost finished asking before Xefros interrupted, shaking like a leaf.<br/>
“Joey, that’s just his quirk. Everyone has one.” He said to her, before standing straighter and addressing the boy, “Please forgive her, she’s not from this planet, as you can see!” At this, the boy’s face split into a frankly alarming grin.<br/>
“I can. In that case, I infer that a good greeting should be got by the both of you. I am Drekul Hiryde.” He twisted his hand in a way that made it look like he was about to bow, but he merely looked down at Xefros and Joey expectantly. Xefros tried to return Drekul’s smile.<br/>
“Well, I’m Xefros Tritoh, and this is my friend Joey!”<br/>
“Joey what?” Asked Drekul, folding his hands behind his back and relaxing his face a little. Joey noticed that he hadn’t blinked since he started talking. She decided to speak up.<br/>
“Joey Claire, from Earth.”<br/>
Drekul nodded. His smile was kinder now than it was before.</p><p>Drekul suddenly stepped behind Joey again. He moved so fast, it was like she’d switched slides in a View-Master, from one where he was in front of her to one where he was running a sharp nail over her shoulder. Xefros seemed taken aback but thought better of pulling out his bat. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle, but Drekul merely sucked in a breath through his fangs.<br/>
“Oh, how objectionable.” He cooed, his finger worming through the hole burned into her jacket, “your fabrics have faulted, here.” She lurched out of his grasp unthinkingly. Turning to face him, he looked surprised and saddened for a moment, before his cool demeanour reappeared. “Were you trying to turn this tunic into an aegis against the acids’ aerial attack?”<br/>
“Yeah,” Joey said, hesitantly, “how’d you guess?”<br/>
“There are pockmarks perforating all across and down your anti-front. Your clothes clearly cannot collect the correct proportion of protection to preserve you from our planet’s precipitation.”<br/>
“All down my back, huh…” Joey winced. She knew she should be grateful to still be alive, but… her jacket was one of her Earth Things. Drekul nodded, and it would have come off as grave if not for the smirk on his face.</p><p>“We can’t go back out into that storm, um, sir, so… can we stay the night?” Xefros asked quietly, wringing his hands in front of him. Drekul smiled wider.<br/>
“I think you should be saying, ‘Can we stay the day?’. The sun shall be scorching the soils harbouring my hive in an hour.” Xefros blanched.<br/>
“Oh no, that storm cloud made it hard to tell…” He muttered to Joey, who was quick to reassure him.<br/>
“It’s okay, Xefros, everything’s going to be fine as long as we’re smart.”<br/>
“Are you still asking for the affirmative?” Drekul leaned in, not quite between them but still very close, his eyes flitting from one face to the other excitably. Joey nodded firmly.<br/>
“If you wouldn’t mind.” She said. The protest in Xefros’ eyes flared up for a second, before he suppressed it as Drekul leaned back.</p><p>Drekul turned on his heel and made another gesture above his head before he started walking. Joey and Xefros followed behind him. The torches illuminated several suits of armour, all on one side of the wall, except where there was space reserved for huge, heavy wooden doors. Eventually, they came to a sharp left turn.<br/>
“How long has Alternia harboured you, Joey?” Drekul asked, not turning around.<br/>
“Three… no, four nights now, I suppose.” She answered.<br/>
“And was Xefros the primary person you participated in wiles with?”<br/>
“Yeah, we were getting up to all sorts of wiles, him and I.” She said, rolling her eyes behind his back, much to Xefros’ horror. If Drekul sensed her sarcasm, he didn’t react.<br/>
“What was the way that you wandered down to deliver yourself to Alternia?” Another turn. Joey looked to Xefros, asking for approval, and he confirmed she should answer. The two had resolved to be careful about the details of her arrival. There was no way of telling if Drekul was a friend or foe to the rebellion.<br/>
“I came here through a portal. It was in my house’s attic back on Earth. It sent me to another one in Xefros’ basement. But then the Heiress blew up his house, so we’re… looking for someone who could help us fix it.” As she reached the end of her story, Drekul suddenly halted in front of them. They’d come to another huge, heavy pair of double doors, which he pushed open with alarming ease. Steam curled under the doorframe and wafted out into the corridor above his head. He waved his hand through the opening, inviting them forwards.</p><p>Joey and Xefros stepped through the door, and her first instinct was to look up. And up. The room was positively cavernous. Judging by the walkway crossing the space halfway between the floor and the roof, it was just shy of twenty feet tall. It was longer than it was wide, and in the centre, it was dominated by a monolithic table, made of the purple wood she’d seen in the Alternian trees. The wall on Joey’s left had two fireplaces set into it, and on the right, she could see the source of the steam: a large kitchen with multiple ovens, fridges and sinks. The steam billowed out from behind a tall cupboard, and a gentle hissing and sizzling could be heard from behind it.</p><p>“Do feel free to sit squarely down at my dining table.” Said Drekul, as he rushed into the kitchen. “I was just tending to delivering dinner.” Joey and Xefros dragged squeaking chairs outwards and sat down next to each other. What Joey could smell stirred much inside her: something like garlic, something like butter, something like mustard. What Drekul was cooking smelled like stuff from Earth, stuff in her own kitchen. She lightly furrowed her brow. Were her eyes watering because of what Drekul was cooking, or-</p><p>“Steamed pincherbug appendages!” Drekul called out. Joey and Xefros heard him picking up something metal and lifting the lid off of a bubbling pot. “Please, partake in some with me!” Xefros immediately jumped up in his chair like a rabbit in headlights and whipped his head around to stare. Drekul could be seen lifting something purplish-black and steaming out of the pot with tongs, smiling contentedly.<br/>
“There’s really no need, if you don’t want to share! We did come uninvited, you have it!” The words tumbled out of Xefros’ mouth into a big nervous pile, but Drekul merely waved his free hand dismissively. Xefros snapped his mouth shut. He was sweating bullets. Drekul lifted the pot off of the heat and clattered around in the kitchen some more.</p><p>“Hey, Xefros,” Joey asked. He immediately relaxed from his ramrod straight former posture. “Do you think it’s safe to eat this stuff?” Xefros thought for a second.<br/>
“Well, it would be rude to refuse, but there is the possibility you’re allergic…” During her time on Alternia, Joey had eaten some of the planet’s food, having brought nothing from Earth but Byers the pigeon, who was most certainly NOT on the menu. Fruit off trees, berries Xefros deemed safe, and a few that Xefros had hurried to tell her were poisonous but she had no issue with. Once they’d bought snacks from a vending machine behind what seemed to be a troll Hy-Vee, but Joey couldn’t even stomach one of the dark red crisps without her mouth and lips itching like crazy.<br/>
“Best to take it slow?” She turned to face him. Xefros nodded.</p><p>Drekul stepped out of the kitchen, his smile frighteningly wide but genuine. Balanced on top of his hands were two plates, wobbling only slightly.<br/>
“Dinner’s done!” He said and slid each plate off onto the table in front of Xefros and Joey, before going back to get his own. Joey’s eyes went wide. It looked like it belonged on TV! On one side, there were three thick, long, plum-coloured things which Joey instantly recognised as crab legs, adorned with tiny flecks of pepper and other spices. On the other, there was a hefty dollop of something steamy and reddish, which smelled like buttery mashed potato and an herb Joey couldn’t identify easily. There were a few short, pointy, lime-green vegetables taking up the top of the plate, that reminded Joey most of baby carrots.</p><p>“Hey, Drekul, this looks really good! What’s in it?” Joey asked Drekul, who was doling out knives and forks. He leaned in between her and Xefros and looked down at her plate.<br/>
“You are aware, erm, kingshield, spearleek, butter, black cornspice (ground, of course), more butter –“<br/>
“It’s just that,” she cut him off, and Xefros’ wince was visible even with Joey only able to see his back, “I’ve had allergic reactions to troll food before, so I’m just going to eat slowly, okay?” He nodded once, looking serious, and flashed around the table into his own chair, directly opposite Xefros. He took up his knife and fork, but didn’t eat, watching Joey and Xefros intently. Recognising Drekul’s want, Xefros immediately cut one of the green “carrots” in half and lifted one of the halves to his mouth. As he chewed, his expression brightened.<br/>
“This is great!” He said, once he’d swallowed. Drekul started eating as well. Joey watched him separate the inner meat from the shell of a crab leg, noting the surgical precision with which he did it, keeping his eyes on the meat at all times and making sure not to obscure his sight with his cutlery. She felt her appetite decrease even further.</p><p>“If I may inquire, Joey,” Drekul began, seemingly to break through the din of clinking cutlery, “what was your occupation on your original planet?” Joey half-heartedly fiddled with a forkful of mashed “potato” while she looked at him.<br/>
“Well, I didn’t have a job yet, back home, unless you count looking after my brother.” Drekul cocked his head.<br/>
“What’s a ‘brother’?” He asked. Joey thought for a second before trying to explain: she’d had the same problem with Xefros.<br/>
“Back on Earth, we have brothers and sisters, people who are raised by the same…”<br/>
“Custodian.” Xefros jumped in, speaking around a mouthful of the crab. Drekul’s gaze turned to him, and he closed his mouth around the food nervously.<br/>
“I see.” Drekul said.<br/>
“What I want to do when I grow up is look after animals.” Joey said, drawing Drekul’s attention away from a now flushed Xefros. “I have a dog at home, and my brother has… his own animal.”<br/>
“Ah!” Drekul brightened up at this and began dissecting his food at a heightened rate. His smile grew. “You think you can succour a symptom that a custodian might be confronted by?” Joey, feeling pretty confronted herself, replied,<br/>
“Well, I can try, at least.”<br/>
“After dinner, then. I will allow you to appraise the affliction, to see if assistance can be achieved!” Joey nodded, trying to look eager. He returned to laser-focusing on his food. Cutlery clinked repeatedly against his plate as he tried to get whatever he was doing exactly right.</p><p>“So, Drekul,” she asked, drawing his attention away from his work on the crab leg, “what is it that you do?”<br/>
“Ah!” He said, his smile broadening and his chest puffing up. “I am an unmurderer!”<br/>
“A what?” She asked. Drekul beamed with pride, lifted a piece of crab meat to his mouth, chewed it, and continued.<br/>
“On Alternia, an activity by the authority that has endured the test of time is that of ‘culling’: unmaking undesirable individuals before they can ‘infect’ the greater aggregate of our species.”<br/>
“Infect with what?” Joey asked. Drekul rested his left arm on the table and raised his right hand into the air.<br/>
“Irreparable injuries such as lost limbs or blindness, genetic indispositions such as allergies, et cetera.” As he rattled off words, he twirled his hand around and around above him. He scoffed. “I think it’s intolerable! An advanced species such as ourselves should be seeking to make sure all souls can contribute to the collective, instead of desiring to destroy the destitute!” His voiced swelled as he spoke, his eyes speaking less of rage and more of an urgent desire to convince her he was right.<br/>
“Yeah, I think so too! It IS wrong to kill people!” Joey said, trying to sound enthusiastic enough about it that his roll wasn’t slowed. Drekul looked positively giddy. He looked up at the ceiling and closed his right hand into a shaking fist.<br/>
“That’s why I’ve went to great girths to gain a grasp on troll anatomy, so I can attend to even the most excessively egregious health hindrances and confirm to everyone that culling is not necessary!” At the climax of his speech, posed rigidly, staring off into space, he seemed to suddenly come back down. He slumped back into his chair and looked into Joey’s eyes once before picking up his utensils and continuing to eat.</p><p>Through the rest of dinner, Xefros kept shooting worried looks at Joey, as occupied as she was with seeming hungry for what Drekul had made. She nibbled the end off of one of the “carrots”, and when no symptoms presented themselves, she ate the rest a little less carefully. Once that was done, her stomach seemed full enough, so once Xefros finished his plate, Joey stood up, with an apologetic expression.<br/>
“Please don’t feel fell about it, Joey.” Drekul said, as he packed the contents of her plate into something like a Tupperware container. “If it implicated an issue to your health, there is nothing wrong with not imbibing it.” After gently placing the plates and implements into a deep silver sink in the kitchen, he briskly strode to the dining room door. Joey and Xefros followed behind as they once again entered those cryptic corridors.</p>
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